2023-05-28 08:26:04
The High Commissioner for Refugee Rights in Lebanon suspended the provision of financial assistance in US dollars to Syrian refugee families during the month of June, after the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor in the Lebanese caretaker government, Hector Hajjar, resorted to a public threat against the refugees, as the UNHCR continued with the decision to provide aid in US dollars. .
A special source from the Commission told Orient Net that the suspension of aid includes only its delivery in dollars, while it will continue to be provided according to the previous system in Lebanese pounds, indicating that UN officials will propose during the consultations a number of solutions, including dividing the delivery of aid between dollars for finances and the pounds provided by the program. global food.
The aid received by the Syrian families is divided into financial and food, and the first amounted to two million and 500 thousand pounds per family, as it became 25 dollars according to the suspended “dollarization” decision, while the second amounted to one million and 100 thousand per person and up to 5 members in one family, after which it became 20 $1 per person, which means that the maximum that a family can get is $125.
public threat
The Commission’s decision came after a warning that carries the tone of threatening to provoke a clash between the Syrian refugees and the Lebanese by “Hajjar”, who is affiliated with the Christian “Aounist movement”, an ally of “Hezbollah”, in the event that the Commission proceeds with its decision to deliver aid in dollars.
Hajjar blamed the deterioration in the salaries of public sector employees and the inability of his country’s government to find effective solutions to increase their salaries to the Syrian refugees, saying that what the family gets in dollars exceeds what the Lebanese employee gets in the first category, even though the aid to the Syrians does not pay the Lebanese government any part of it. , but all from international donors.
Hajjar’s tone carried a sectarian overtone in his speech, during which he denied approval of the decision to “dollarize” aid, stressing that it was Prime Minister Najib Mikati (the Sunni) who approved the decision, and that he had no knowledge of it, although the government system requires his approval of amendments related to aid. To turn back the clock to recall the sectarian dispute over fixing the winter time during the month of Ramadan.
Hajjar’s interpretation can go beyond a sectarian dispute, as his transgression of the “dollarization” decision indicates two possibilities: either inflaming the Lebanese street and heating it up against the Syrian refugees by creating a clash between him and Mikati, or pressure to improve the aid provided to the Lebanese within the family support program. the poorest to more than 70,000 families.
suitable mechanism
In addition, the Commission announced the suspension of financial aid in dollars for the family of a Syrian refugee in Lebanon, until the completion of consultations between the head of the Lebanese caretaker government, Najib Mikati and Minister Hajjar, and between the Deputy Special Coordinator of the United Nations in Lebanon, Imran Reda, and my representatives, UNHCR, Ivo Fraisen and the program. World Food Abdullah Al-Wardat.
The consultations include searching for an appropriate mechanism to provide aid to the Syrian refugees, after the UNHCR decided to provide financial aid in US dollars instead of Lebanese pounds during the past week, attributing the reason to the difficulty of securing cash liquidity from the pound in light of the collapse in its value.
The Commission had suspended the provision of aid for the month of May, due to the fear that the Syrian refugees would be targeted by the Lebanese army intelligence and deported while they were gathering to receive the aid at the ATM, according to what was previously reported by Orient Net sources, before a small portion was received. Of the families, the month’s aid during the past two days after the “dollarization” decision, and then its suspension.
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